Hitler's War in Africa 1941-1942 by David Mitchelhill-Green

Author:David Mitchelhill-Green [Mitchelhill-Green, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, World War II, Africa, North
ISBN: 9781526744371
Google: -YA0EAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
Published: 2021-08-30T22:12:41+00:00

‘A general feeling of optimism’

Rommel could now write: ‘Now our forces were free. Despite all the courage’ shown by the British and French troops, Ritchie ‘had been badly mistaken if he had thought to wear down my forces by these pitched battles.’105

Anxious not to squander his remaining armour, Ritchie gave the order on 14 June to retire to a new defensive line incorporating Tobruk. We can only imagine what the retreating infantry would have thought when readers of London’s Times were informed on 16 June that the Eighth Army was ‘still full of fight’, while an ‘impotent’ Rommel threatened ‘no serious harm’.106 A Cairo dispatch read:

Fierce fighting is proceeding, but whatever the outcome, there is not a shadow of a doubt that Rommel’s plans for his initial offensive have gone completely awry and have cost him dearly in men and material.107

Listening to similarly reassuring BBC broadcasts, US war correspondent Frank Gervasi concluded: ‘We were really winning, not losing the war.’108 Perhaps such confidence sprung from reading Crüwell’s seized diary, which signalled Rommel’s plan to take Tobruk on the fourth day of the attack – 1 June.

Regardless, Gott began planning for Tobruk to again be invested. Satisfied by what saw, he notified Ritchie that the defences were a ‘nice tidy show’ in comparison to 1941.109 He also expressed his desire to be given command of the fortress – his observation was accepted, his proposal rejected. Instead, Ritchie selected the commander of the 2nd South African Infantry (SAI) Division – General Hendrik Balzazer Klopper. He was a ‘first class soldier’, Ritchie declared, ‘I cannot want a better man for the defence of Tobruk.’110

Writing from within the fortress, Klopper exuded confidence.

Things are going very well indeed with us here, as spirits are very high, and I do not think morale could be better under present circumstances. There is a general feeling of optimism, and I think there is every reason for it, although we expect to put up a strong fight. We are looking forward to a good stand, and we are supported by the very best of British troops.111

Klopper was a young commander, supported by a largely inexperienced staff, of a division largely untried in battle. Meeting with his brigade commanders on 15 June, he announced that Tobruk was to be held for at least three months, though without mention of a tactical plan. Watching on, Colonel Max H. Gooler (US military observer) was eyewitness to a ‘decided lack of co-operation’ within a dysfunctional HQ

[where] staff openly complained that General Klopper did not have the correct picture of the enemy situation or [realise] its serious potentialities. And what was more serious, apparently did not trust his chiefs of sections. In my opinion he was not in touch with the situation.112

Curiously, there seemed no sense of impending danger. The British Guards Brigade even travelled to the coastal ‘retreat’ to relax after the intense fighting at the Knightsbridge Box – hardly a regrouping before battle.

But while senior commanders reassured each other, esprit de corps within the lower ranks sagged.

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